The relationship between spontaneous telomere loss and chromosome instability in a human tumor cell line.

ABSTRACT: Chromosome instability plays an important role in cancer by promoting the alterations in the genome required for tumor cell progression. The loss of telomeres that protect the ends of chromosomes and prevent chromosome fusion has been proposed as one mechanism for chromosome instability in cancer cells, however, there is little direct evidence to support this hypothesis. To investigate the relationship between spontaneous telomere loss and chromosome instability in human cancer cells, clones of the EJ-30 tumor cell line were isolated in which a herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-tk) gene was integrated immediately adjacent to a telomere. Selection for HSV-tk-deficient cells with ganciclovir demonstrated a high rate of loss of the end these "marked" chromosomes (10-4 events/cell per

SUBMITTER: Fouladi B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1508089 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Nov-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature